A Long Time Coming
by MorningGloryBlue
Summary: Contrary to common assumption, it was not love at first sight for Michael and Nikita. A series of events during their time at Division together, that shaped their past.


Contrary to common assumption, it was not love at first sight for Michael and Nikita. In fact she was deathly suspicious of Division the moment her eyes met the insipid hall ways, it's pristine facilities and everything in it.

Actually it had not been Michael to meet her blurry drug induced gaze when she had first awoke in her room disguised cell. It had been Amanda, and it the experience had been highly unpleasant.

She taunted her with an infuriating calm voice and made Nikita hate her with volcanic force.

[Amanda never knew she would pay for her mistake with her life.]

As a young recruit, Nikita often thought that Amanda enjoyed her job _way_ too much.

[The thing was, she did.]

* * *

But no, Nikita had not met Michael until two weeks into her Division training. She had heard about him though; Percy's right hand man, Division's favorite solder; her absent handler, and last but not least, how hot he was.

[Somehow that topic always seemed to creep up among the other female recruits conversations.]

The first time Nikita met Michael, it was because she had gotten in a fight with two other recruits. A black eye and several bruises had already begun to form, but the other two were much worse for wear.

After being forcefully dragged into a nondescript room, Nikita was certain she was going to be canceled right then and there. Then she realized that the room was an office, and when she felt it was safe enough to make sure it wasn't Amanda's office, she lifted her head to inspect her surroundings. In front of her sat a very attractive man in a dark suit filling out paper work.

"Pires, Gregory?"

Nikita had to admit, his deep smokey voice was equally attractive as his physical appearance.

"This recruit started a fight with Stacey and Joan."

"And your coming to me because?" Michael continued to fill out his paper work without a single glance at the three other people in the room.

"Amanda is dealing with Lucy." Michael rolled his eyes, and finally looked up to face Nikita. He looked her over, unimpressed before opening a file Pires tossed to him. For some reason this distinctly angered her and she didn't know why.

"Leave us, I'll deal with it." He told the guards dismissively. The moment the guards let her go, Nikita took her chance to explain what happened.

"I didn't start it." she said indignantly.

"Maybe not but, you sure ended it. You have an excellent right jab, but you need to work on your blocks." He continued to skim through the file, looking a little less apathetic.

"You're, you're not going to punish me?," Nikita said feeling relief make her knees weak.

"I don't really care if recruits get in the occasional tussle, but I should warn you," Michael said giving her a sharp look. "Joan has a way with knives."

[It was a good thing Michael told her that too.]

* * *

As time passed, Nikita began to calm down a bit and feel less trapped. She still wanted to bust out though. To bust out, she needed more information. To get more information of the right caliber, she needed Michael. Over time, Nikita was eventually able form a relationship with her ever somber handler. It was with much difficulty as he hardly smiled, let alone laughed.

[Some time later she felt guilty that it wasn't until after her first OP that she ever wondered _why_.]

The idea of becoming an agent frightened as much as it thrilled her. _She could get out!_ Her plan could finally take place! Then her first OP came around, and everything changed. Nikita worked furiously to install her shell box, forgetting it's original purpose.

[Nikita was actually planning to use it to prove that Birkhoff was not indeed as all knowing as he claimed to be]

With Michael's strange confession, he seemed to be much more layered then she had ever thought he was. For the first time since entering Division, Nikita wants to figure out who he really is.

[It's months before she finally begins to see through his smoke screen.]

* * *

When people thought of Division's greatest agent, nearly all of them thought of Nikita, when in fact, she hadn't. She was the best they ever trained, but she hadn't been _the best._

The best had been another female agent by the name of Lucy. Percy had plucked her from an obscure part of the CIA to have her become Amanda's newest protege. But Lucy had shot through the ranks, becoming skilled not only in manipulation, but with guns, knives and martial arts as well. The only problem was her mental state. She was sadistic and unpredictable at the best of times.

[That wasn't why Percy set her up though.]

Lucy, although lethal and psychotic, was devastatingly loyal. To Michael, not Percy.

Only Michael and Lucy seemed to know why and no one, not even Amanda could figure it out. When Nikita had asked him what it was that kept her so honest to him, he simply responded; "We have an understanding."

Nikita dashed off to find someone who would give her what she really wanted; trust.

[Not that she would ever admit it was only _his _trust she _really_ wanted.]

* * *

When Nikita's still green, she's teamed up with Michael and Lucy for a high profile OP. With Michael's vague reason for supporting Percy still fresh in her mind, she pays close attention to her two partners.

"Hey Nikki!" Lucy's voice is purposely vindictive and annoying as she addressees Nikita at five in the morning.

Nikita's tired and very nearly fed up after four days of having to put up with the older woman.

"Would you not?," she hisses at Lucy with an astonishing amount venom.

Lucy tilts her head with a type of childish delight and is about to respond when Michael enters the room carrying coffee. Nikita's sigh of relief is very nearly audible.

[Of course Michael notices anyway.]

It's then that Nikita realizes that every time Lucy calls Michael 'Mikey', a 'Lulu' is exchanged in return. All of a sudden, something clicks in her head as to why Michael and Lucy get along so well.

[They both know they'll both give as good as they get.]

* * *

"Why did you join Percy?," she asks for the fourth time since entering Division.

"Nikita, if I want to tell you, I will." His voice is so sour, she decides to ask the question again another day.

[She won't get the answer for another two years.]

* * *

Lucy is dead.

Nikita had just began to learn how to deal with her quirks and moods, finding that she isn't all that awful. Psychotic and manipulative yes, but there's something in her laugh that reminds you she's human too, and despite all her flaws, she's not a psychopath.

But she's dead now. She was set her up, and somehow Nikita can just tell Percy's behind it.

So she go's to the one person she thinks will listen, but Michael doesn't even hear her out. He shuts the door in her face telling her to get some sleep or she'd miss a briefing tomorrow. It's when she hears the tell tale thumps of a punching bag behind the door that she knows he heard every word she said and so much more.

[Again she wonders why he still will follow Percy, even though he plotted his friend's death.]

* * *

Nikita and Michael become Percy's go to team if he want's the job done right, and Lucy quickly becomes a forgotten ghost.

The two of them grow close.

[Very close.]

They exchange barbs and jibes when no ones listening. They get each other to smile and laugh when the tedium grows restless. But sometimes Nikita regains the same hatred that simmered in her stomach when she had to deceive Victor Wong, because she knows this,these black Ops, are not right. Maybe it's because she's only twenty, but somehow she thinks Michael could make things right if he wanted to.

[So why doesn't he try?]

* * *

Nikita carries a beautiful young girl named Alexandra to a local relative she had found near by.

"Please take care of her," she says earnestly to the elderly woman.

"We will."

* * *

Right after a shady OP, Nikita and Michael have a fierce argument. It wasn't the first one and it wasn't the last by far. More and more tension had been building between them as Nikita became more and more capable; more aware of how Division operated. This argument was particularly opinionated, and heated. It ends with Michael hurdling the hardest verbal punch, knocking the wind out of her. He's half way out the door when she regains her breath, and in normal Nikita fashion, manages to still have the last word. They're back to step one.

[Again.]

About three hours later Nikita hears a knock on the apartment door. It's Michael with takeout and a DVD.

"Peace offering?"

Nikita can't help but smile.

* * *

A month later they're still quarreling, but somehow things are different. One day during an argument Nikita finds she's almost pressing up against him; her lips incredibly close to his. And to her shock, she finds, she wants to kiss him.

[badly]

So she does and finds his lips crash onto hers with a type of gentleness Nikita didn't know a man was possible of. Her hands tangle in his hair, his wrap around her waist and everything is perfect. His hands and kisses make her feel like the most important thing in the world. He feels _so good. _Michael's like a drug she'll never be able to quit. But then it's over and only a memory of the heat from his body against her remains.

"Nikita... I'm sorry. I can't," he says between panting breaths.

"Go." Her voice sounds too cold, even to her own ears.

"Nikita.." His voice and his eyes are soft and pleading, but somehow neither effects her.

"GO!" Her strangled yell echos around her apartment. The moment he leaves, Nikita drops like a sack of flour to the floor. Sobs rack her body until all the tears have left her and she feels hollow.

[It will be a long time until she cries because of Michael again.]

After exiting the stifling apartment to get something to eat, Nikita realizes her face is still splotched with tears and mascara. It's then she hears a kind voice.

"Are you OK?"

This is the first time she meets Daniel.

* * *

Daniel's perfect. [and clueless.]

Michael's jealous [really he's more worried for Nikita then anything else, but it's much easier for her to only see him as something more inhuman then what he really is.]

Amanda and Percy are unsuspecting [Or so she wants to believe.]

Daniel makes her laugh and smile and feel more beautiful then anyone she's ever known. She loves _him_; This. This feeling of unconditional love, hope, normalcy. It's perfect.

Whenever Michael walks into the room 'perfect' begins to choke on the his sheer essence, until it fades into the black cape of his presence.

[She almost hates him for it]

* * *

Josephine. The name tastes like sour milk. It's awful and Michael's lying to her, she knows he is!

[She doesn't really know, but it's so much easier to believe he is ]

It's only when he flings his jacket around her bare shoulders with the promise that she'll never have to be Josephine again, does it strike her that maybe he never did set her up. After the OP, she knows she needs to get out of Division as fast as possible. It's not an option anymore. She needs to grab Daniel and run far, far away. So she plans to finally escape the chains that have bound her for so long.

* * *

Daniel's dead.

Percy killed him.

_But it is so not over.

* * *

_

Nikita sits in the epicenter of her living room fingering a photograph she had found of her and Daniel together.

"What a pleasant surprise," she spats at the man standing behind her.

"I'm sorry," Michael says. His voice is quite; detached, and absolutely infuriating. Suddenly the grief that's been carving her insides since Daniel's death is like alcohol to a flame. Fury springs up from ashes of pain and her eyes are parch dry.

"How would you know Michael?," Nikita asks getting of the floor, turning to face him. "What it's like to really lose someone you _love_."

It's not fair and she knows it, but she can't help herself. Nikita is enraged and Michael is far too easy of a target. He stands still, stoic and controlled and Nikita wonders if she'll ever be able to shake him.

"You. Know. _Nothing_" With every word she walks closer to him. At nothing she's about to place her hand on his chest when suddenly Nikita feels her body being slammed against the wall. She cries out as her arm is bent twisted her back and Michael's form seems to engulf her smaller figure.

"Six years ago my wife and five year old daughter were blown up by a terrorist by the name of Kasim Tureek." His already steel grip tightens and Nikita can _feel_ years upon years of compacted rage in his voice. _She had no idea._ The thought of him having a wife, a daughter; a life.. Was absurd!

"Happy now?" His voice is mocking and Nikita doesn't think she's heard anything so cold.

In a smooth movement her body hits the floor hard enough to knock the wind out of her. Shocked, Nikita looks up a Michael taking in the black fire; an inferno of rage and pain burning in his eyes.

"You have twenty four hours till Percy gets involved." Michael's about to leave when he turns around one last time.

"Don't come back."

The door slams, leaving Nikita more broken hearted then she ever fathomed could be possible.

She's disappeared eight hours later.

* * *

Three years pass.

Nikita works for revenge and eventually finds Alex. Michael just takes one day at a time.

Sometimes they lay awake in their respective beds at night, thinking about each other and wonder if the other does the same.

She eventually comes back to destroy Division. Nikita returns like a Phoenix from the ashes, filled with fires of revenge. Michael chases her; he lets her go. Nikita taunts him, reassuring herself with the pain in his eyes that he still cares. Then one day Nikita begins to daydream about what her life would be like if Daniel was still alive, but finds she can't. Every time Michael always appears between them. Then something dawns on her; something Michael knew from the very_ start_.

There's no such thing as perfect.

* * *

**AN: This idea has been brewing in my head for a long time and alas, it is now on paper. This is just my take on Michael and Nikita's relationship from what I've interpreted during the previous episodes. Ever since One Way I saw this much more relaxed, intimate relationship then just purely a physical thing that turned into genuine feeling. My original idea was to have it be that Nikita and Michael close to hating each other before they even began to notice some attraction, but then I would have to mostly exclude the "Your such a tease" line. I tried to get my idea to work around it, but what you just read was it's end result, so it obviously didn't work.**

**Reviews wonderful, as it helps me to improve as an author. This is a different style then what I've written in before, so please tell me how I did. Also, thanks to the lovely Authoress who helped to encourage me, and helped me edit. Thank you for reading!**

**-Blue  
**


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